You'll never believe it.

Well, I went to the lace group on saturday!



I almost didn't make it. I have been busier than is healty for me lately, and I haven't been getting good sleep....and I've even been forgetting to feed myself a few times. All of this becomes a concern because I'm nursing the little one, and her nutrition is dependent on my well-being. Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up to get ready to go to the lace group and I was really dizzy and felt nauseated. That made me mad. This was the one thing all month that I had wanted to do for myself....... so I got madder and showered and ate and left with no makeup on and hair wet and frizzy. This was not going to keep me from my "me time"! Heck no! Dear Husband had agreed to keep both little ones for 4+ hours during my escape, so I had to take the oppurtunity! Thankfully, after driving and settling in there I felt better and was able to enjoy my time there.



Gwen Coen was there, and one of the first people I met. She told me to pull up a chair and made a spot for me at the table. Most of the group does bobbin lace, and it's a pretty informal meeting. after two hours of doing lace projects or whatever, the president came up and talked about business and upcoming events. I don't remember at what point it was during the day, but I did ask Gwen for some help with the infamous rolling ring question. First thing I asked about was posting the shuttle. She wondered where I had picked up the term "post the shuttle" as it is not in the TAT workbooks anywhere. So I showed her my dilemma. I dropped the shuttle through, closed a ring and then showed how I could count the tops of the stitches after the last picot. If I pulled any tighter I explained, the stitches would roll inward, and I would visually lose that stitch. But if I left it looser I would end up with a gap at the end of my ring. She looked at me liek she wasn't sure of what I was talking about, and pulled the ring a bit tighter so there wouldn't be a gap. I then tried to explain how the stitches rolled inward, so we both counted the stitch tops again. To her, you could still see all the stitches. There ends up with what appears to be the top of the final stitch at the end of the ring. To me, after much fiddling and analysis, it looks as if what she sees as the final stitch, is actually the back of the previous stitch rolling forward to take the place of the actual last stitch. She still didn't really get what I was explaining, so in the interest of tatting goodwill, I asked if I was just thinking too much about it--to which she heartily agrees. Can you believe it! The whole reason TAT has you drop the shuttle through has nothing to do with the appearance of the end of the ring. I guess they do it just to get the thread to the back of the work for the next element. She was perfectly happy with my rings. Go figure. We went on to have a jovial time, and she helped me a bit with project 5 of phase one (fellow TAT participants will know what I'm talking about.......split rings ugh!). Also, I sold three pairs of earrings. Hahaha the last people I thought I'd sell tatting too was tatters ROFL! So I made enough for the membership fees to join the Puget Sound Lacemakers, and they granted me access to the lending library.



All in all it was fun. I totally did not even think about packing a lunch, so I was pretty hungry by the time we were done. It was exciting to see others tatting ...I've never met another proficient tatter in person before! And I got to see some bobbin lace in action. There is a beginners class at next months meeting, and I might do it just for the experience, but I don't think I'd take it up seriously.

So. How shall I continue to close my rings after all this you might ask? I think to be sure I'll at least post the shuttle. Suzanne has had some intriguing ideas about controlling that roll. I might also continue to add the first half stitch before I post and close. Just because I want to. The moral of the story is to not fear the tatting gods and do as you please. Because tatting has grown in so many different directions, there is no such thing as the perfect technique (which annoys me a bit. I like to be perfect :-) Just do what makes you happy, odds are that people won't even be able to tell- tatting can be such small work that something that is obvious to me tends to hide in finished work.